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Virginia - Strange and Confounding

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Virginia is a game by Variable State, released for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC on the 22nd September 2016.

 

Set over the course of a week in 1992, you play as FBI operative Anne Tarver, who is tasked with investigating the mysterious disappearance of a young boy in a little town called Kingdom, Virginia. The story plays out trough dream sequences and simple gestures, and without a single spoken word. It has a score performed by the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra (which sounds really clear and crisp) that drives the action along. It is unabashedly a "walking simulator," with interactive elements barely existing. However, having played through the entire thing, I was moved. Confused, but moved, and in a way that most games don't even attempt.

 

It has shades of Twin Peaks and the X-Files, and the credits specifically call out Brendon Chung's Thirty Flights of Loving. All of these influences are or become apparent over the approximately 2 hour runtime, but it quickly develops an identity of its own.

 

The game has received decent reviews from Polygon, Eurogamer, and Rock, Paper, Shotgun. They don't really spoil anything, but even if you're interested just go buy it and play it. It's only about 10 quid anyway.

 

 

 

 

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I had only been peripherally aware if this but didn't know earlier that it had no dialogue which is intriguing.

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I've had my eye on this game for months (I love Twin Peaks). I played the demo a few weeks ago and it was pretty interesting.

 

I heard the PS4 version doesn't run great so I bought it on steam last night. Going to play it later today!

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The use of jump cuts in first person works so well. Not the biggest fan of things this symbolic, but it was a fun ride. Definitely recommended.

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It has shades of Twin Peaks and the X-Files, and the credits specifically call out Brendon Chung's Thirty Flights of Loving. All of these influences are or become apparent over the approximately 2 hour runtime, but it quickly develops an identity of its own.

 

I hadn't read much about the game before I played it, other than the fact that it was a Twin Peaks inspired narrative game. But a few minutes in, I could already feel the Blendo vibe to it. While the ending didn't fully work for me, I'm still glad I played it. The wordless storytelling is really effective, but it just doesn't seem to stick the landing (at least for me). 

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I liked this game a lot! I'm pretty okay with narratives that don't really add up to any logical coherence if the images are interesting enough, and I think it delivers on that end.

 

I also think the developers did a terrific job with capturing the feel of Virginia in the stretches of road and the interiors of the homes. Also while the soundtrack wasn't my favorite I was impressed with how it flowed so naturally with the state of the game.

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Well this game didn't go in the direction I expected... very interesting game.

 

I need to play it through again I think. Soundtrack suited the game very nicely - if it shows up on bandcamp i'll probably get it.

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I find it really interesting that two games came out this year that were inspired by Thirty Flights: this and Firewatch. All these games use to some extent use this montage technique, but Firewatch uses it to bridge gaps between conversations but imply the passage of time, and Virginia flits between different spaces to give room for reflection and to build connexions between different images, without a single spoken word. Thirty Flights lands somewhere in the middle, maybe?

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Stylistically 30 Flights montage cuts always felt like a Godard film to me. Although they all have their own purposes and uses, I think one way that all those games have in common is that the cuts are a useful way to break up the monotony of the "walking sim" experience. Something like Gone Home can get by without it because of the density of the environment, but when I think of something like Dear Esther man I would have loved a couple of montage breakaways because holding down the w key or forward analog stick forever was a real unpleasant way of having a narrative fed to the player. Montage helps cut the fat and keep the players alert.

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Some fun theories, not really backed up by anything:

 

There is no choice in the game, but we still get multiple endings:

 

Protagonist chooses to leave the cell and report on Halperin, thus allowing her to keep her job and continue working in internal investigations. It's filtered in a negative way, showing a future of making friends and being forced to lose them.

 

Alternately, she takes LSD. Sees aliens.

 

We are also given multiple ideas of what happened with the boy:

 

Father has an affair, boy catches them in the act, and runs away (alien in the hallway?) - this was after she took LSD, so I interpreted as a guess on the protagonist's part

Boy is dating an alien?

Boy is abducted by aliens?

Boy simply climbs over the ledge and runs away in the necklace locket grassy area

Boy is seen walking along the road, guitar in hand

 

I loved that use of unreliable narrator. Her projections interweaving with reality allowed me to understand her motivations so much more clearly.

 

Since I believe the aliens part to just be a factor of the LSD trip, I'm confused why this game gets the X-Files comparison. Can anyone point me in that direction?

 

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I've been meaning to check the demo, but seems I forgot.

I've put a reminder for myself to check it out after my trip is over.

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I played through a couple nights ago. I've got mixed feelings on it. The score is great and it does some really cool stuff with jump cuts that I think other games could learn a lot from. It's almost got a stream of consciousness thing going on. But the story overall didn't totally land for me. Maybe just a little too open ended for my taste. Also, while you can walk around a lot of rooms, they are often not fleshed out enough to make exploring worth it, which I found frustrating. Hopefully someone on the podcast plays it...I'd be really curious to hear their thoughts.

 

Random spoiler thoughts:

Ariskany, I agree with pretty much everything you said, though I think the part where she narcs on everyone is just her fantasizing while in the cell and not an actual ending, similar to how she speculates on things that could have happened to the boy.

One place the whole "no talking" thing didn't work was when they got put in jail. Why exactly did that happen?

Was there anything to them tracking the Mayor to the observatory and not being allowed inside? Just a red herring to fuel her conspiracy laden acid trip later is my guess.

I think it was her partner's mom that came out of the UFO to take the boy, which is kinda fun.

WHAT WAS IN THAT DAMN LOCKED BOX COME ON YOU CAN'T DO THAT. DON'T JUST CUT TO HER BURNING IT UP AGGGHHH

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I played through a couple nights ago. I've got mixed feelings on it. The score is great and it does some really cool stuff with jump cuts that I think other games could learn a lot from. It's almost got a stream of consciousness thing going on. But the story overall didn't totally land for me. Maybe just a little too open ended for my taste. Also, while you can walk around a lot of rooms, they are often not fleshed out enough to make exploring worth it, which I found frustrating. Hopefully someone on the podcast plays it...I'd be really curious to hear their thoughts.

 

Random spoiler thoughts:

Ariskany, I agree with pretty much everything you said, though I think the part where she narcs on everyone is just her fantasizing while in the cell and not an actual ending, similar to how she speculates on things that could have happened to the boy.

One place the whole "no talking" thing didn't work was when they got put in jail. Why exactly did that happen?

Was there anything to them tracking the Mayor to the observatory and not being allowed inside? Just a red herring to fuel her conspiracy laden acid trip later is my guess.

I think it was her partner's mom that came out of the UFO to take the boy, which is kinda fun.

WHAT WAS IN THAT DAMN LOCKED BOX COME ON YOU CAN'T DO THAT. DON'T JUST CUT TO HER BURNING IT UP AGGGHHH

 

LOL. Thankfully, all of the Twin Peaks references in the press headlines before I played the game prepped me for a lack of answers. It also helps that I'm not a tinkerer of obtuse symbolic storytelling. If my brain makes the connections, awesome, but otherwise I just let it wash over me (makes things like Kentucky Route Zero much less stressful). 

 

Now that Kentucky and Virginia are covered, here's hoping Maryland and Delaware gets some love in game titles. Have a whole Mid-Atlantic scene. Or maybe indie devs as a collective should take up Sufjan Stevens' abandoned 50 states project?

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